On the Town
Get set for a city core revamp
By Phil Stanford
The Portland Tribune Oct 9, 2006
The recent commotion over the fate of the so-called “gay triangle” building at Southwest 12th and Stark is nothing if not a reminder that this city is on the verge of great change.
Will the owner of the building – who, not incidentally, also operates the bathhouse on the corner there – sell out to big developers who’ve staked out the area?
And if that happens, will the nightclub Silverado, which for the past 18 years has anchored what’s commonly considered Portland’s gay district, be persuaded to move as well?
Tune in next week – or certainly next year at this time. Because by then there will surely be more downtown Portland buildings on the auction block.
Not, of course, that the city isn’t always shifting. As property values rise and fall, businesses must always find a way to make do.
In fact, before several blocks of Stark went gay during the 1980s, the neighborhood was home for an entirely different strain of nightlife.
• • •
In the ’50s, the spot currently occupied by the Silverado was a nightclub and strip joint called the Desert Room – the social hub of the Portland underworld of that time.
When its proprietor, Nate Zusman, was busted for what the authorities described as aiding and abetting prostitution, the name changed, although not much else did, to the Red Garter.
In 1982, after lying vacant for a year or two, it opened again as a gay nightclub – Flossie’s.
Then in 1988 it became the Silverado – which one real estate tycoon described to me as sort of like a sports bar, but with huge video projections of naked men on the walls.
Not surprisingly, the gay community is concerned about the possibility of losing a favorite watering hole – and judging by the available information, they may have good reason.
Major real estate interests reportedly have purchased an option on the property, and according to sources familiar with the matter, probably will go ahead and buy it.
But if it’s any comfort, there’s really not much anyone can do about it anyway: It’s all a function of marketplace, as they say.
• • •
Once the Brewery Blocks were developed, it was only a matter of time before a building in the gay triangle would become too valuable to be used as a bathhouse and nightclub. Whether a deal is cut next week or next year, it’s going to happen.
And not just in the gay triangle, either.
In case you haven’t been downtown lately, Portland is in the midst of a building spree, the like of which hasn’t been seen since the early ’80s, when the U.S. Bancorp and KOIN towers went up.
The main difference this time, though, is that most of the new space is for housing. New condos and apartment buildings are rising all over the downtown area – not just the South Waterfront District, which has received so much attention.
Two years ago, says Jeff Joslin of the city’s Bureau of Development Services, they were presented with about a dozen building projects for review. Last year there were 20.
This year, the bureau is reviewing proposals for “roughly 50 major building projects” in the downtown area, the lion’s share of which are for condos and apartment buildings.
Better look now, because pretty soon you’re not going to recognize the place.
Minimaha and I are glad to be those Portlanders.
